Atari System V RELEASE NOTES [1991]

Nondisclosure

Distribution Contents

Atari System V, Release 4
RELEASE NOTES
Dev eloper f s Prerelease
Atari Release Level 1.0-08

You have just purchased the Atari System V, Release 4, Developer's Prerelease.
This document describes the contents of this release, the configuration
requirements, and known bugs and problems.

Your purchase may include the full system comprised of the IT and the
Developer’s Kit or it may consist of the Developer’s Kit only, if you already
have a IT. In either case, these release notes describe the contents of the package
you chose.

This release is covered by the nondisclosure agreement signed between you and
the Atari Corporation. Please read your copy of this agreement in full before
discussing this release with anyone outside of your organization

Atari System V, Release 4, is derived from the AT&T UNDC System V, Release
4. Included in the distribution are

• Atari System V, Release 4, Version VE12, ported by UniSoft Ltd.

• X Window System Version 11, Release 4, MIT

• OSF/Motif Window Manager, Version 1.1.2 , Open Software Foundation

• WISh2 Graphic Shell, Non Standard Logics

• Wx2 Editor , Non Standard Logics

• XFaceMaker 2 Interactive Interface Building Tool , Non Standard Logics

• GNU Development Tools , Free Software Foundation, including

- GNU C Compiler, Release 1.39-05*

- GNU C++ Compiler, Release 1.37.1*

- GNU Symbolic Debugger, Release 3.5

- GNU Bison Preprocessor, Release 1.06-1

- GNU Diff, Release 1.15*

- Revision Control System, Release 5.5

*See Version Numbers in the Problem Workarounds section of these notes.

Atari Corporation

1

Packaging The Atari System V Developer’s Kit, whether purchased alone or as part of the
complete system contains the following:

• Atari System V Developer’s Manual, consisting of the following:

- Release Notes

- Atari System V Developer’s Guide

- Atari System V Style Guide

- WISh2, Version 1.1.0, User’s Guide, Version 1.1

- Wx2 User’s Guide, Version 2.1

- XFaceMaker 2 User’s Guide, Version 1.1. 0.i

- The Atari System V/TOS Boot Preference diskette

• AT&T UNIX System V Release 4, Product Overview and Master Index

• Three-button mouse

• GNU source code card

• Developer’s Registration Form

• Either LXT213SY(213 MB) or LXT340 (340 MB) Maxtor hard drive

• Atari System V developer’s release software (installed on hard disk)

• Atari System V License Agreement

Optional Items In addition, the following items may be purchased for Atari System V:

• GNU source code tape cartridge

The GNU software contained in this Developer’s Release is a product of the
Free Software Foundation. Some of this software has been modified to
optimize its performance with Atari System V. Under the terms of its license
with OSF, Atari will make available the original source code for these
products to the purchaser of an Atari System V. There is a nominal fee
involved which defrays the cost of media, duplication, and shipping. For
further information, contact the Atari representative from whom you
purchased your Atari System V developer’s release.

• Atari VME/Ethemet networking card

• 16- MB memory board

Tools Six Atari System V window-based tools are available with this release. These are

• Kernel Configuration

• Product Installation

• X Console Configuration

• File System Management

• Set Boot Preference

• Set Global Variables

Five of the tools are documented in the Atari System V Developer’s Guide. The
Global Variables tool is described in the next section of these notes.

□ Because these tools are not yet implemented from the WISh tool tray (as
described in the developer’s guide), each of them is accessed by choosing
“System Administration Tools” from the Desktop menu.

2

Atari Corporation

Global Variables

Configuration Requirements

Hardware

Software

The Global Variables Editor tool allows a system administrator to create
environmental variables and change their values without use of shell commands.
The commands to create the desired variables are constructed by Hie globals tool
and stored in the file /etc/globals.

The global variable stored in / etc/globals will become the defaults for all users;
however, users may override tiny of these defaults by changing settings in their
private startup files.

1. Select Global Variable Settings from the System Administration menu.

The Global Variables Editor window appears, presenting global variables in a
scrolled list.

a. To add a variable, enter its name in the Name text input field and
click the Select mouse button on the Add window button.

b. To modify a variable, select the variable from the list, enter the
modified value in the Value text input field and click the Select mouse
button on the Modify window button.

c. To move a variable, click Select on the Move window button. Enter
the new position of the variable in the window that pops up.

d. Delete a variable by selecting it from the list and clicking Select on
the Delete window button.

2. To restore values to those that existed before the current editing session,
Select the Restore option from the File Menu.

3. To apply value changes made during the current editing session, Select
the Save option from the File menu.

Changes are saved to /etc/globals.

□ At this time, die contents of /etc/globals is not provided to users who log in
using the C shell (csh). As a temporary workaround, a parallel file,
/etc/globals.csh is provided, but not updated by the Globals tool. To support
users of the C shell, the system administrator must update /etc/globals.csh
manually each time the /etc/globals file is changed.

Part numbers of special hardware:

• Any one of the following three boards may be used on your TT; however, the
first one, Rev B.l, must be taken to your Atari representative for
modification.

- C301763-001, TT030FAB, Rev B.l

- C301763-001, TT030 FAB, Rev D

- C302406-001, TT030 FAB, Rev A

• RAM required: 8 MB

Required software: All software required to run Atari System V is included on
the hard disk.

Atari Corporation

Supported Hardware

Third-Party Products

Atari System V running on the Atari TT030 has been tested with a number of
different devices. Below is a list of devices verified against the hardware and
software:

• SCSI Bus: Hard Disks

- Maxtor LXT213SY 213-MB hard disk drive

- Maxtor LXT340SY 340-MB hard disk drive

- Seagate ST1239N 239-MB hard disk drive

- Seagate ST 1480 480-MB hard disk drive

• SCSI Bus: Other Devices

- MaxStream 250Q 250-MB tape backup system

• ACSI:

- Note that ACSI hard disk drives are not supported by Atari System V;
however, it is possible to keep ACSI hard disk drives connected to the
system for the purpose of running the TOS operating system.

• VME Bus:

- Atari VME Ethernet card

• Memory Boards:

- 16-MB memory board

Developers of software and/or hardware who have adapted their products for
operation with Atari System V may have these products included in an Atari
third-party products reference catalog by providing the following:

1 . Complete vendor contact information.

2. A general description of the product as it would be portrayed in a reference
catalog.

3. A statement on how the product was tested.

4. References to at least two customer sites using the product.

5. A sample product, including documentation.

Atari may conduct its own evaluation before including the product in its
reference catalog, but will make no claim or warrant for any third party product.
The purpose of the Atari third-party reference catalog is simply to inform
customers of the availability of these products from their respective
manufacturers.

For more information, contact

Atari Corporation

1196 Borregas Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1302
Attn: Art Pruzynski

System V Marketing Manager
Telephone (408) 745-2172
FAX (408)745-2088
uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ames!atari!artp

Atari Corporation

Package Information

This release is composed of 45 software packages, as listed in the following table.
The table also shows the space that each one occupies on die hard disk and whether it
is required, recommended, optional, or shareable. The system may not run if a
required package is deleted. You will probably want to keep the recommended
packages, the optional packages may be deleted at your discretion, and shareable
packages arc those that are commonly shared across a network.

Name

Description

Blocks

Status

AtariLib

Atari Application Library

543

Required

Filsys

File System Administration Tool

266

Recmnded

GNU

GNU Software Development Tools

3714

Recmnded

KmlCnfg

Kernel Configuration Tool

614

Recmnded

MOTIF

OSF/Motif Environment

18419

Required

PInstall

Production Installation Tool

314

Recmnded

RCS

Revision Control System

1613

Optional

Wish2

WlSh2

7545

Required

Wx2

Wx2

634

Recmnded

XConsole

X Console Configuration Tool

413

Recmnded

XFM2

XFaceMaker 2

211560

Optional

bnu

Basic Networking Utilities

3299

Required

cds

C Development Set

14281

Recmnded

codeset

Local Language Codeset Support

205

Required

compat

Compatibility Package

6663

Recmnded

core

UNIX Essential System Utilities

29438

Required

crypt

Security Administration Utilities

961

Required

dfm

Directory and File Mgmt Utilities

2062

Required

dfs

DFS Utilities

69

Required

ed

Editing Utilities

886

Required

epu

Enhanced Programming Utilities

6498

Required

face

AT&T Framed Access Cmnd Environment

742

Required

globals

Global Variables Editor Tool

245

Recmnded

gls

Prelocalised Utilities for Atari

117

Required

inet

Internet Utilities

4631

Required

ipc

Interprocess Communication Utilities

215

Required

locale

Local Language Support

1638

Required

lp

LP Print Service

7160

Required

man

Man Pages

19105

Shareable

misc

Miscellaneous Scripts and Man Pages

191

Required

nfs

Network File System Utilities

1592

Recmnded

nsu

Networking Support Utilities

1818

Required

perf

System Performance Analysis Utilities

1325

Recmnded

Atari Corporation

5

Package Information ,
continued

Software Tips
and Problem Workarounds

Name

Description

Blocks

Status

platform

Platform Specifics

4462

Required

rfs

RFS Utilities

3826

Optional

rpc

Remote Procedure Call Utilities

2269

Required

setboot

Set Boot Preference Tool

157

Recmnded

spell

SPELL Utilities

469

Optional

sprinfo

System Problem Report

38

Optional

sys

System Header Files

3792

Optional

sysadm

System Administration Utilities

9203

Required

terminf

Terminal Information Utilities

570

Shareable

ufs

UFS Utilities

1872

Required

usrenv

User Environment Utilities

1829

Required

xcp

XENIX Compatibility Package

400

Recmnded

♦ Running rwhod on Large Networks

The rwhod daemon can bog down a very large network. If you have more than
twenty machines on your network, you may consider turning off the rwhod
daemon, depending on how much the network is being used. If you have more
than 100 machines on a network, turning off the rwhod daemon is essential.
Refer to the rwhod man page for more information.

♦ Using awk Versus nawk

Atari System V contains two versions of the awk utility. The newer version,
nawk, has some expanded features and will be the standard awk in future
releases of the operating system. New developers may wish to begin using it
with this release. Read the awk(l) and nawk(l) man pages for information on
the features of each utility.

♦ Memory Boards

Eight megabytes of random access memory (8MB RAM) are required to run
Atari System V. RAM is divided into two banks, ST RAM and TT RAM. Both
are available to Atari System V. Two megabytes of ST RAM are provided on the
system board. An additional two megabytes of ST RAM are on an add-on board.
A 4MB TT RAM boiird is also installed on your system, making a total of 8MB
RAM.

Your system may have a 16MB TT RAM board instead of the 4MB TT RAM
board, making a total of 20MB RAM.

Users with memory intensive applications may wish to upgrade their systems
with additional memory.

Developers are strongly encouraged to add a 16MB memory board to their Atari
TT030 to run the XFaceMaker 2 tool. Although the tool can run in 8MB RAM, it
provides greater performance with additional memory.

6

Atari Corporation

♦ Backup Devices

Diskette drives are installed in all Atari TT030 systems. Diskettes hold 720
kilobytes of data. Developers with more than ten megabytes of data are
encouraged to purchase a tape backup device. Tape backup devices are more
efficient for backing up large amounts of data.

♦ Sharing System Files on a Network

If you have Atari TT030 machines running Atari System V on a network, you
may wish to save disk space on some of the machines by sharing certain system
files across the network using NFS. The directory called /usr/share is easily
shareable: the information is constant across machines and is not required for the
functioning of any single machine. Among the items in this directory are manual
pages, which take up about 10MB of disk space; terminal informauon files,
which take up about 1-1/2 megabytes of disk space; and various other data files.

To save disk space, make one machine the server that keeps the /usr/share
directory. Run the share command on this machine to give permission to other
machines to mount /usr/share. On the other systems, remove the contents of
/usr/share and mount the /usr/share from the server machine.

See the manual pages for share and mount for more information on this
procedure.

♦ Version Numbers

A number of the utilities in /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib have had version
numbers stamped into their binaries by MCS. Some of these utilities also have a
command line option to print out a version number. This version number was
hard-coded into the source code, and may differ from the number assigned by
MCS. The following example illustrates the discrepancy:

♦ mes -p /usr/local/bin/gcc
/usr/local/bin/gcc:

@(#) /usr/local/bin/gcc, version 1.39-05

Gnu C compiler

TueAug 27 17:52:43 EDT 1991

♦ gcc -v

gcc version 1 .40

This problem does not affect the functionality of the utilities.

♦ Mouse Cursor

The mouse cursor occasionally begins to drift across the screen, either in a
vertical or a horizontal line. Moving the mouse slightly will stop the drift. If a
click-to-type focus policy is selected (this is the default for the Motif window
manager), the drift may not even be noticed. If a follows-pointer policy is used,
focus may occasionally be lost until the mouse cursor is restored to the current
window.

♦ SCSI External Device Setup

Some idiosyncrasies may appear during configuration of the external SCSI
chain; e.g., if there is only one device on the external SCSI chain, the machine
may not boot. The rules for a successful configuration are

1 . Both ends of the SCSI chain must be terminated.

2. Each SCSI device must have its own unique ID number. (A tape drive must
use SCSI ID 4 or 5.)

Atari Corporation

7

Reporting Problems Because you have purchased a developer’s prerelease of the Atari System V
operating system, you will be participating in the early development of
applications as well as testing of the operating system release issued by Atari.

Atari wants your feedback on problems found in the release as well as
suggestions on improving the product. For this reason, the release contains two
programs that comprise a system for reporting problems. This system is called
the System Problem Reporting (SPR) System.

The first program, called spradm, logs information about your site, including
your company name and address, your electronic mail address, the configuration
of your hardware and software. This program should be executed when you first
receive the system. After that, it only needs to be re-executed if information
changes.

The second command, called spr, asks for a brief description of the problem
detected (or an explanation of your request for enhancement) and a step-by-step
description of how to reproduce the problem. It then saves the information into a
file, along with a copy of the site information from spradm.

Send this file to Atari, either by postal mail or by electronic mail.

To send by postal mail, copy the file to a floppy disk using the command:
tar cvf /dev/ floppy filename
Mail the floppy disk to:

Atari System V Support
Atari Computer GmbH
Zwiegniederslassung 89-91
W-6096 Raunheim
Germany

The diskette will be mailed back if you provide a return envelope with postage.

If possible, we would prefer receiving an SPR by electronic mail. An electronic
mail network will be established in Europe in October, 1991. Purchasers of the
developer’s release will be infonned about connecting to the network at that
time.

Outstanding Problems FoIlowin S is a list of tlie current Atari System V , Release 4, reported problems.

• The sdb symbolic debugger has trouble tracking source code line numbers
correcdy for those source modules which include the standard header file
<sys/stat.h>.

• The terminfo entry for xterm is not fully debugged and there may be
problems with function keys from within xterm windows, (ref# V4_169)

• When excluding the NFS module from the kernel configuration, the KRPC
and KLM modules must also be excluded. This is not handled automatically
by the dependencies.

• NFS may occasionally lose write packets. The NFS block-I/O daemon
(biod) should not be run on this release to minimize the occurrence of this
problem (as delivered, it is not enabled).

• Using useradd with the -s option to specify an alternate shell (/usr/binAsh or
/ usr/bin/csh ) may not always create a properly working account. The
circumstances under which this occurs are uncertain.

8

Atari Corporation

Outstanding Problems,
continued

• The Is program and die sort program don’t use the collating sequence
specified by the LC_COLLATE file selected by the SLANG environment
variable.

• The file program fails on entries under die proc Tile system type (by default
this file system is mounted as /proc). Running file on such programs usually
results in the “Cannot read : I /O error” message.

• The pkgadd program occasionally gives the default file modes to files which
have individual modes specified in die package prototype file. The pkgchk
program appears to make die same errors in parsing die prototype file.

• The mailx program does not by default read 8-bit data. The SLANG variable
must index to an LC_CTYPE file which specifies an 8-bit character set; if
this has not been set up, mailx will refuse to display messages containing
8-bit data, calling them “binary”.

• The compress program won’t handle longer than 12-character file names,
even on a UFS file system where such file names are allowable. If die source
filename is 13 characters or more, compress complains that “Fi lename too
long to tack on . z”. This happens even if the option to send data to
stdout (compress -c) was used.

• The man page for ndbm says that die new dbm library functions are invoked
by specifying -Idbm to the loader; in fact, these functions are obtained by
specifying -lucb, and die OLD dbm routines by specifying -Idbm.

• If stty cs7 is selected, bit 7 may contain die parity or stop bit.

• If the setruid function is used within a program to become superuser, it only
works die first time it is invoked within that program.

• Although directories exist for a variety of locales under /usr/locl/locale, only
the english_usa locale is fully supported at this time. Most of the message
catalogues in the other locales are in fact the english_usa message
catalogues.

• The WISh2 desktop does not yet show icons for the Atari System
Administration tools.

• Complete help is not yet available for all Atari System Administration tools.
Some requests for help on context may be ignored, or may result in a dialog
box which states that no help text is available.

• The filsys System Administration tool requires networking support to be
installed. If an Ethernet controller is not installed in the system, the tool
cannot be activated. The workaround is to use the regular command-line
interface, namely the fsck program.

• The GNU C++ compiler (g++) is not functional in this release.

Atari Corporation

9